Guildhall 2025, All that Glitters

The Guildhall will be filled with sparkle and colour this winter as the Suffolk Craft Society’s talented jewellers and glass artists showcase their exquisite creations at the annual exhibition in Bury St Edmunds. From intricate metalwork to luminous glass, each maker brings a unique voice to their craft, celebrating imagination, skill, and material beauty. 

 

In jewellery, Alison Dane crafts vibrant, lightweight pieces from hand-decorated papers, balancing precise design with playful bursts of colour. Susi Hines creates refined jewellery from her own gold alloys, her intricate, articulated forms exploring ideas of movement and transformation. Diane Levitt, inspired by Constable Country, fashions one-of-a-kind pieces from recycled metals, enamels, and found materials, blending elegance with sustainability. Helen Smith, a Suffolk-based jeweller with over thirty years’ experience, specialises in Mokume Gane and cloisonné enamel, uniting traditional techniques with contemporary design to produce richly patterned pieces accented with gold and gemstones. 

 

Among the glass artists, Cathy Constable draws inspiration from the layered horizons of the East Anglian marshes, using multiple firings and iridescent surfaces to evoke shifting light, water, and sky. Clare Gaylard works in flame-formed Murano glass, sculpting distinctive vessels and adornments shaped entirely in the flame, rich with colour and pattern. Hassina Khan explores themes of identity and heritage through kiln-formed glass that merges Urdu calligraphy with modern design — her luminous, text-based works recently featured in the British Glass Biennale 2024. 

 

Together, these artists bring a radiant display of craftsmanship to the Guildhall — a glittering celebration of creativity not to be missed this winter.